What is Google’s view of paid links for SEO?

Question: I am paying for advertising in a real estate publication that allows my listing to be online. Via email I am alerted to site visits to each listing. Is that considered paid?

Answer: Google’s official view of paid links is that they do not count, and should be marked using the REL=NOFOLLOW attribute so that it ‘knows’ that these are paid links. That said, as long as the paid links are not part of a link farm or other nefarious ‘black hat’ SEO site, you should be fine.

I would assume that Google is pretty smart and links that are served via CGI programs (as is common for advertising are ‘not counted’ in your PageRank, as they are pretty obviously paid links). No one really knows for certain. What you want to avoid is ‘link farms’ and crazy links-for-payment schemes, as Google really does not like those tactics!

About
Jason McDonald, Ph.D

Got a question? Click this link to email Jason or call 888-993-1122. Dr. Jason McDonald is founder and Senior SEO / Social Media Director of the JM Internet Group. He teaches the SEO training classes for the group, and therefore provides most of the SEO tips for this blog. His goal with this blog is to provide an easy 'one-stop shop' for the busy marketer looking for tips, tricks, and secrets on how to get to the top of Google and Bing for free using proven SEO tactics. When not dreaming up SEO tips, Dr. McDonald lives in the San Francisco Bay Area with his wife, two dogs, a cat, four iguanas and twelve children (just kidding). Really you read down to the bio on this guy? Enjoy the blog.